"Then tell me," said he, "what it was he said? Why doesn't he, some day
when he has time, dictate a dictionary? And isn't there any way to stop
such talk by law? That man gets worse instead of better. He forgets
everything except words. Says he, the other day, 'Well, Arthur, my boy,
when are you coming in to pay your doctor bill?' Now mind, I paid him
a'ready, and just think of my teeth! But I told him, nice and easy, how
I paid him the two dollars. Then I told him about my teeth rattlin'
whenever I go down the stairs, and asked him what to do for them. He
just laughed and gave me a half-dollar, and said, 'Bone-set tea, my
boy--drink bone-set tea, and plenty of it;' and so I do."
The TWENTIETH Chapter
"Pym left the exiles," said Bainbridge, on the following evening, as, in
accordance with his engagement, he continued the story of the great
storm in Hili-li; "and hastened on toward his home. Arrived there, he
went directly to the cellar, where he found the three large lamps
alight, brilliantly illuminating and comfortably warming the apartment;
but Lilama was missing, though he found there one of her maids. This
girl told Pym that Lilama had, some four hours earlier, taken with her
her maid Ixza, and hastened from the house. Questioned closely, she said
that after Pym had gone, Lilama suddenly bethought her of a former
servant, an old nurse, who for some years past had lived quite alone,
and that Lilama had decided to have the poor old woman found, and cared
for. It seems that when the young wife was herself in safety and had the
mental leisure to think of others, the thought of her poor old servant
and friend in danger grew more and more unbearable. She had waited
almost an hour for Pym to return, and then, taking Ixza with her, had
gone forth; but where the old nurse resided, only Lilama and Ixza knew.
The maid knew only that Lilama had left the cellar with the intention of
assisting, in some manner, the nurse of her babyhood.
"In ten minutes Pym and Peters, going in different directions, had
aroused many of the exiles, who hastened in all directions, to search
thoroughly the poorer quarters of the city, and to inquire of everyone
whom they might encounter concerning the residence of the old nurse. The
exiles had already visited, or sent others to visit, about every house
in the city; but in a few instances--particularly where but one person
lived in a house--the occupant had been advised, and had consented, to
come to a central station and there remain till the storm abated or
passed; and then, for some purpose delaying, had been overcome by the
cold, and, as the system of search included only one visit to each
house, had been left to die--the fact transpiring through an accidental
second visit, or when the city was later scoured in search of food that
might have been overlooked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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